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Planning rules may have finally opened up for developers but with houses Auckland house prices now falling and building costs rising, there are serious questions about how enthusiastic private developers are going to be to take on new projects.

"It is clear the economy is grappling with some meaningful headwinds, which look unlikely to dissipate," wrote ANZ economists.

Westpac chief economist Michael Gordon agreed: "A 0.8 per cent quarterly rise is not that impressive. We recently revised our September quarter growth forecast down to 0.7 per cent, and over the next year as a whole we expect GDP growth to fall significantly short of Treasury and RBNZ forecasts."

If net migration continues to ease and GDP underperforms then whoever forms the new Government will face challenges to meet all their election promises.